To keep people motivated, celebrity trainer and Gold’s Gym Member, Melissa Alcantara is sharing (3) expert tips to avoid what Gold’s calls “the fitness cliff,” when New Year’s resolutions dramatically drop after nine weeks and new gym member attendance falls 50%.
1) STOP TRYING TO “TONE”. Humans can either build muscles or lose fat. In addition, extremely low levels of fat are not only unsustainable, but they’re straight up unhealthy and can cause serious damage to your body. Ladies! If you want to have nice tight arms, a round butt, and good posture then you MUST lift weights and eat real food.
2) EAT YOUR CARBS! You NEED carbs, healthy carbs that is. Our bodies are designed to draw energy from carbs, but carbs from quinoa vs carbs from donuts are dramatically different. So, most people need a moderate ratio of carbs to protein–something like 40% of your daily intake coming from protein and 40% from carbs, the remaining 20% from healthy fats–and hardly anyone needs to have an extremely low to non-existent carb intake daily. Again, eating healthy carbs will help you lose non-essential fat, but processed carbs are no bueno.
3) MOTIVATION IS COOL, BUT HABITS ARE COOLER. There’s nothing more rewarding than overcoming your own ‘resistance’; you know that little voice that tells you you’re too tired or you can just do it tomorrow and my favorite: you’re just too “busy.” I have learned that motivation is great to get you moving initially, and to help you push through the plateaus; we all need a little motivation here and there, But what’s waaay greater and more effective for staying on track is weaving fitness into habits that fit into your life. You see, you can’t make it an option, options become excuses and that’s not the kind of habit you want to form, is it? Would you not brush your teeth every day? Or take a shower? You need to show up every single day and do what you’re supposed to do, whether you want to or not. I promise you that motivation will be 100000% stronger when you are also consistent about showing up.
